Measuring Content Syndication

Measuring the performance of your content syndication campaign is a critical part of your overall strategy. Analyzing the results of your content syndication efforts allows you to see what’s working, what’s not, and how your partners are working for you to bring in the best leads possible.  

The easiest way to do this is to focus on metrics that tie back to your original content syndication goal. For example, if you initially set out to expand brand awareness and increase website traffic, you should keep an eye on metrics like impressions and click-through rate (CTR). If want to know whether your paid syndication budget is being put to good use, track the number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) you’ve been able to drive, as well as your culminating CPL.  

Let’s explore two content syndication campaign examples before moving on to all the metrics you could track for them, depending on your interests and tech stack.  

Content syndication campaign examples 

Content syndication campaigns have common elements including the outgoing email promotion, on-site inclusion, landing page and final asset. After those steps, most content marketers will then have a series of nurture emails, featuring additional content and offers. Your exact approach will depend on your strategic plan as reviewed in this guide.  

Here’s an example of content syndication from Google Workspace: 

Content syndication metrics 

When running a campaign like this, you’ll want to be ready to track a number of important KPIs (key performance indicators). Your goals will determine your focus, but you can keep an eye on lead generation (number of leads), lead quality, conversion rate, and click-through rate (CTR) as a start. Analyzing engagement, conversion and return metrics helps in understanding the impact of syndicated content. 

Engagement Metrics 

• Impressions 
• Clicks / CTR 
• Referral traffic (and sources) 

Conversion Metrics  

• Conversion rate 
  • on syndication landing page 
  • on your own landing page 
  • with other partners 
• CPL 
• CPO 

Return Metrics 

• Leads (list building) 
• MQL > SQL > SQO 
• Revenue 
• ROCI (Return on Content Investment) 

How to know if your content syndication program is working 

If you’ve spent the time to learn about what content syndication is, and explored its benefits and basic strategies, you’re already well on your way to generating the MQLs and sales-ready leads you need to continue hitting your marketing goals and contributing to revenue for your company. Continue proving the worth of your ideas and the value of adding syndication to your content marketing strategy by having your numbers straight.  

Understanding content marketing metrics, and how to know whether your syndication strategy is working is your key to getting the most value out of what you do–and in the end, making your marketing job easier. Isn’t that what we’d all love to do?! 

Is your content resonating? 

One of the first things you need to figure out after running your first few content syndication campaigns is whether your topic and approach to that topic are resonating with your audience. To gauge this, look at clicks, click-through-rate and even metric like time-on-page or heatmaps. Look for the topics that bring you the most attention, whether that’s in pure traffic, or in conversions in your topic-based pathways.  

Is your landing page converting? 

Whether you’re working solely with your vendor and their network of publishers, hosting your own landing pages, or a combination of both, you’ve got to have a keen eye on whether those pages are converting. Most content marketing strategies involve a mix of landing pages from the resource on their own site, to PPC-specific landing pages, and pages on partner and publisher websites. Paying attention to who converts on which of these pages, and how those leads fare further down the funnel can give you a good view into what’s working.  

Are your leads becoming customers? 

As your content syndication leads become customers, you’ll have data on how they converted into an initial meeting or demo, whether they became qualified opportunities, and the influencing factors to their customer journey. You may find topics or UX hiccups you can optimize as you continue to use content syndication as a lead generation endeavor.